Splash of Green Livens Up Area Blacktops for a Day

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) 9/18/11, Ann Rodgers

Mike Monroe, left, of Monroeville, and Jonathan Moore, of Oakmont, who work for Lawn Sense, set the benches in a "V" on Friday at the direction of Judy Wagner, senior director of community gardens and green space programs for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Ms. Wagner said the benches are recycled trees. The sun wasn't yet up Friday when workers and volunteers from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy rolled down sod in a Downtown parking lot and outlined it with paving stones.

By 8 a.m. pedestrians were gawking at what they had created for Park(ing) Day: a mini-park with trees, flowers, cafe tables and benches.

"They made a park in the middle of a parking lot. That's nice. I used to sit in Grandview Park when I was a kid," said Frank Murgi Jr., an unemployed security guard from Bloomfield on his way to a job interview.

The 12-hour mini-park was intended to show the need for urban green space, and what can be done in a small area.

Park(ing) Day began in 2005 in San Francisco, when a design studio turned one parking space into a park with sod, a potted tree and a bench, for the two-hour limit on the meter. A photo went viral on the Internet and it became a global phenomenon.

Pittsburgh was among 140 cities on six continents where grassroots groups transformed parking spaces into parks Friday. Most groups used single, metered spaces. Art students at Shaler Area Elementary School set up a papier mache tree they had made from recycled paper in the school lot.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy wanted a larger project, and borrowed part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust lot at Penn Avenue and 8th Street.

"When Direct Energy said they would sponsor us, we said that we need to get into this in a big way and showcase all the different greening strategies," said Judy Wagner, senior director of community gardens and green space programs for the conservancy.

Direct Energy, a North American power company that emphasizes sustainable energy, consolidated its business operations in Pittsburgh in 2008. It provided hand-outs on energy conservation for passers-by.

Each of the conservancy's major programs was represented in the mini-park.

Dozens of magenta and gold chrysanthemums represented 140 community flower gardens that the conservancy maintains in 20 counties. The young ginko, maple and zelkova trees were from Tree Vitalize, which is planting 20,000 trees in Pittsburgh over five years. The wooden benches, made from split logs, had been made from Pittsburgh trees that had to be felled after they were damaged in this year's blizzard. They belong to School Greening, which creates outdoor classrooms in Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Hanging baskets and planters represented Downtown Greening, which has placed 600 hanging baskets on light poles and set up 400 street planters. The Cultural Trust parking lot was already surrounded by ornamental planters containing boxwoods, which were part of the conservancy's greening effort for last year's G-20 Summit.

The Cultural Trust parking lot is temporarily in a space where a building had been torn down. A nearby building is slated for demolition "and the Cultural Trust has asked us to make sure to surround that entire perimeter in green," Ms. Wagner said.

Many companies gave to the effort. Lawn Sense donated sod and labor, while Allison Park Landscape Supply gave paving stones. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership sent tables and chairs from Market Square. Direct Energy sent 80 volunteers to put chrysanthemums in planters on Penn Avenue.

When the park is taken down, "many of these trees and all of the chrysanthemums will be planted Downtown," Ms. Wagner said.

Not everyone was thrilled with the instant park. Some passers-by worried about losing parking spaces and were relieved to hear the park would be gone in hours. But Tonya Schramm of Shaler, who was on her way to work, was thrilled.

"This is really great," she said. "I've seen the planters on the streets, and I just wish they'd do more."

Shortly after 7:30 a.m. the workers whispered in excitement when the first bird perched in a ginko tree.

Green space benefits more than wildlife, Ms. Wagner said. Plants clean the air and absorb storm runoff. She cited studies that found that in communities with trees and greenery, "people get to know each other, speak more often, have more positive interactions and there is less violence," she said.

For Park(ing) Day, "we just want to surprise people into looking at these urban spaces differently. We want to make sure that, as these spaces are redeveloped, we don't forget the greenery," she said.